Lauren Kennedy

An attractive blonde singer-actress, Lauren Kennedy began her career as a toddler when, at age five, she was tapped to appear in a local production of "Carousel" in her native North Carolina. Encouraged by her parents, she spent seven years studying at the North Carolina Theatre's Summer Arts Theatre School, eventually landing major roles in the NCT productions of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" (1987), "Peter Pan" (1988), "Evita" (1993) and "Chess" (1994). After graduating high school in 1991, Kennedy enrolled at the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music but her studies were cut short when a an agent spotted her and arranged for an audition for the 1993 American premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical "Sunset Boulevard". She was cast as a Marilyn Monroe-type in the ensemble and landed the understudy job to Alice Ripley who had the ingenue role of Betty Schaefer. When the production transferred to Broadway in 1994, Kennedy went along as well and was eventually tapped to display her lovely soprano voice as Betty in the show's first national tour.

Returning to NYC, Kennedy landed another understudy gig, this time to Emily Skinner as Daisy in the 1997 musical "Side Show", a fictionalized biography of the conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton. (Ironically, Alice Ripley was cast as Violet and Kennedy went on for Skinner on over 30 occasions during the musical's brief run.) The performer remained active in regional theater productions and working on demo recordings. In 2000, she was teamed with Karen Mason (Glenn Close's understudy in "Sunset Boulevard") in the stage musical adaptation of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". Kennedy then created the lead role of Petra, a vocalist in a 1930s German swing band, whose relationship with a Jewish musician is threatened by the rise of the Nazis in the new musical "The Rhythm Club", which premiered at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia.